Mary Jackson

Hello, my name is Mary Jackson, and I want to share my story with you. I was born on April 9th, 1921, in Hampton, Virginia. From a young age, I had a deep love for numbers and science; they felt like puzzles just waiting to be solved. Growing up during a time of segregation in the United States presented many challenges. The world around me had rules that tried to limit what African Americans could achieve. But my family was my foundation, and they always encouraged me to dream big and never let those barriers define my future. I worked hard in school, and that hard work paid off when I graduated from Hampton Institute in 1942. I earned two degrees, one in mathematics and one in physical science. With my education complete, I felt prepared to build a career, though I wasn't yet sure where my path would lead.

After college, I explored a few different jobs, but I was still searching for a place where my skills with numbers could make a real difference. In 1951, I found that place when I began working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which you might know by its shorter name, NACA. This was the organization that would later become NASA. I was hired as a 'human computer,' a title given to the mathematicians who performed incredibly complex calculations by hand. I worked in the West Area Computing unit, a segregated section where all the employees were brilliant African American women. My first supervisor was a woman named Dorothy Vaughan, who led our group with intelligence and strength. Our work was vital; the engineers who were designing new and faster airplanes relied on our calculations to make their designs safe and successful.

After a couple of years in the computing pool, a life-changing opportunity came my way in 1953. An engineer named Kazimierz Czarnecki offered me a position working directly with him in a supersonic wind tunnel. He quickly saw my potential and recognized my passion for understanding how things worked. He encouraged me to take the next step and become an engineer myself. However, there was a major obstacle. To qualify, I needed to take graduate-level courses in math and physics, but those classes were only held at the nearby Hampton High School, which was an all-white school. Because of segregation laws, I was not allowed to attend. But I refused to let that stop me. I had to get special permission from the court to enroll in the classes. I prepared my case and stood before the judge to argue for my right to an education. I succeeded. After completing the required courses, I was promoted, and in 1958, I officially became NASA's first Black female engineer. It was a proud moment, not just for me, but for everyone who believed that talent should not be limited by race or gender.

For nearly two decades, I worked as an engineer at NASA. My job involved analyzing data from wind tunnels and real-world flight experiments to help improve the design of aircraft. I loved the challenge and was proud of my contributions to the field of aerospace engineering. Over time, however, I began to notice that while I was successful, the opportunities for promotion for women and other people of color were still very limited. I saw many talented individuals being held back. I felt I had to do something about it. So, in 1979, I made a difficult but important decision to change my career path. I took a position as a manager in the Equal Opportunity office. In this new role, my mission was to help other women and minorities advance their careers at NASA. I worked to ensure that everyone had a fair chance to succeed based on their skills and hard work. I dedicated myself to this work until I retired in 1985.

I lived to be 83 years old, passing away in 2005. For many years, my story and the stories of my brilliant colleagues were not widely known. That changed when our contributions were shared with the world in a book and movie called 'Hidden Figures.' Suddenly, people everywhere learned about the women who helped America win the space race. In 2020, NASA gave me an incredible tribute by renaming its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters. I hope my journey shows you that with determination and a belief in yourself, you can overcome obstacles and create a path for others to follow their dreams, too.